Dr. Peter PIOT

Dr. Peter PIOT

Director and Professor of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Dr. Peter PIOT, Born in Belgium in 1949. Obtained M.D. at University of Ghent, and Ph.D. (Microbiology) at University of Antwerp. Current Director and Professor of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

The Second Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize for Medical Research goes to Dr. Peter Piot for his pivotal research on diseases endemic to much of the African continent, including HIV, Ebola, chlamydia, tuberculosis and gonorrhea.

Personifying an unusual combination of research on the ground in multiple African locations and worldwide policy strategy, Professor Piot has applied his scientific discoveries and insights to people all over the world, especially in Africa.

Beginning in 1976, Dr. Piot, then at the Institute for Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, devoted indefatigable energies to the epidemiology, virology and clinical analysis of diseases of devastating impact in Africa, and dedicated years of his life to research and training all over the continent.

Dr. Piot was part of the team that discovered Ebola in Zaire (currently the Democratic Republic of the Congo) in 1976, and among the first to confirm the presence of heterosexually transmitted HIV and pediatric AIDS in Africa, as well as the association between HIV infection and tuberculosis in Africa.

Through his prominently published scientific papers, and powerful role on the global stage, Dr. Piot has brought the HIV pandemic to the forefront of global attention and concern, raised international commitments to its funding and control, and built scientifically grounded responses to the control and treatment of the disease.